Hooray!
You've embraced the role of mentoring new teachers and will soon have a student teacher under your wing! Whether you are called "mentor teacher," "master teacher," or "cooperating teacher," you are taking on a meaningful and rewarding role in helping student teachers learn how to thrive and grow in this profession.While you may have some ideas on how to be a mentor and support your student teacher on this journey, you may be looking for ideas and tools to help along the way. Your support can be crucial to helping them become the best educator possible, and you will hopefully build a lasting relationship as someone they can turn to for advice or ideas.
Jumping into a new school, classroom, staff, and more can be overwhelming for a new teacher. Read on for some tips and freebies that can help your student teacher feel welcomed and at ease, and can help you both establish norms that will leave everyone feeling joyful and inspired by this experience.
1. Relationships are key
As you prepare to welcome your student teacher, keep in mind the world of difference it can make if you prioritize building a positive relationship from the get go. Just as with our own students, your student teachers will be much more comfortable learning from and working with you if you develop a sense of trust and positive leadership.Start by really putting in an effort to get to know your student teacher. This will not only help them feel welcome, but it can help lay out some differences between the two of you that may need to be accounted for in order to feel like a successful team.
Are you a morning person, or do you stay late to plan and prep? Do they have family or work obligations before or after school that may put them on a different time track than you? How will you compromise to ensure you still have adequate time to plan and prepare together? This is also the time to set norms and ensure your expectations and understandings of student teacher/mentor teacher roles are on the same page.
Beyond getting to know one another’s schedules and interests, be sure to introduce your student teacher around campus to help them feel comfortable with the people and the layout of the school.
2.Reflection is vital to improvement and growth
Another key component of a master teacher's role in teacher mentoring programs is to foster reflective practice in teaching. Teach your student teacher to be okay with you asking “why” they made certain choices – this does not mean you are saying their choice was a questionable choice; it’s just encouraging them to reflect on decisions they make in and out of the classroom, and to be thoughtful of how those decisions impact their students.Video record lessons to discuss – yes, it may be awkward, but it really is so much more beneficial for the student teacher to SEE themselves doing the actions you say you observed and to see the things around the room they may not have noticed while “in the moment.” This can be a great tool for collaborative conversations and goal setting.
3. Don’t just evaluate your student teacher; help to teach and train your student teacher
This is very likely only your student teacher’s first or second opportunity to TRY teaching. As mentor teachers, we are effectively an extension of the credentialing courses – everything their courses teach them in theory, we get to support in practice. That also means providing feedback and – here’s the key part- support to help our student teacher learn and grow. When discussing areas for growth, be sure to also give your student teacher some strategies to try in that area. Then, observe them again to follow up on whether they’ve improved or whether you two need to brainstorm some other strategies.Just like in our own classrooms, we have to assume the need to model and teach even the most basic strategies and approaches. While some student teachers will come with a knack for certain aspects of teaching, be sure you aren’t assuming they know HOW to lesson plan and HOW to execute specific management tools or strategies. Model and hand-hold a bit at first, then as they grow and are ready, be sure to give them freedom to try lessons in their style. Try to avoid stepping in during their lessons unless absolutely necessary, but make notes of observations to reflect on later.
Remember, they will enter your class as a new teacher, and leave your class…still as a new teacher!
It’s OKAY if you didn’t impart #allthewisdom and “build the whole car,” so to speak – you helped them grow and provided a solid foundation for their own journey into teaching. For that, YOU ROCK!!
Click here to download a set of freebies to help you start your journey as a master teacher.
